National Conference division one pacesetters York Acorn will be aiming to be more forward-thinking this weekend when they take on Ince Rosebridge in a benchmarking clash.

Both sides are turning heads in the story of the season so far. After both winning promotion from division two - Ince as champions - Acorn are currently unbeaten, while Rosebridge show one loss and one draw.

But, as team manager Paul Lumby points out, Rosebridge have had the much harder early draw while Acorn have had some easier sides to contend with.

He said: "We have played a lot of teams that are at the moment struggling at the wrong end of the table, although we still had to beat them.

"But Rosebridge are a very good footballing team and have played teams more towards the top end of the table, so it's going to be a good indicator of how we are doing."

One thing Acorn will be striving for is to make better use of the forwards in building the attack for a more joined-up approach.

Said Lumby: "Defensively we have been very good this season, but we need to find more cohesion in attack. We need to be a bit more patient and not force passes and let the forwards gain the hard yards before bringing the backs into it."

Prop Lee McTigue will be one of those making the yards as he returns to the squad after work commitments in a perfectly-timed swap for James Morrow, who is unavailable.

Mark Dawson starts the first of six weeks out of action due to work duties, but Darren Callaghan should be in contention for a place in the 17 after a holiday.

York Acorn 'A' have no game this weekend.

Heworth make the epic five-hour trip to Millom in division two of the National Conference hoping to build on last week's first win of the season.

Joint coach Jimmy Rothwell said: "Millom are a team of two sides - the team that plays at home and the team that plays away, so we will have to see how they are.

"We are positive though. If we just keep playing like we did last weekend we will start turning the corner."

Key man Aaron Wood, who joined the Villagers only recently, is again in the side but the recruitment does not end there with more names hopefully being added soon across the board.

Long-term injury Liam Cochrane is still out, along with Dan Briggs, who is unavailable, but there is a chance that prop Simon Allinson could return.

Updated: 10:13 Thursday, October 06, 2005